Boris Johnson has claimed Vladimir Putin threatened to kill him, saying ‘I don’t want to hurt you, but with a missile, it would only take a minute‘.
The former prime minister revealed the menacing remark was made in a phone call in February 2022, days before the Russian troops invaded Ukraine.
The ‘extraordinary’ conversation followed a visit then-British leader Mr Johnson had made to Kyiv – a last-ditch effort to show the Kremlin the West was behind Ukraine amid fears of war.
Mr Johnson spoke in a new three-part BBC series looking at how the West grappled with the Russian dictator in the years before the conflict escalated.
Warning Putin an invasion would prove disastrous, he says he cautioned tough Western sanctions loomed if it went ahead – alongside ‘more Nato, not less Nato’ on his country’s borders.
The MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip said of the call: “He [Putin] said, ‘Boris, you say that Ukraine is not going to join Nato any time soon. […] What is any time soon?”
‘And I said, “Well it’s not going to join Nato for the foreseeable future. You know that perfectively well”.
‘He sort of threatened me at one point and said, “Boris, I don’t want to hurt you, but with a missile, it would only take a minute”, or something like that.
‘I think from the very relaxed tone that he was taking, the sort of air of detachment that he seemed to have, he was just playing along with my attempts to get him to negotiate.’
Mr Johnson has remained a big backer of Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration since he was forced out of government and travelled over for an ‘unofficial visit’ this month.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace also spoke to the BBC programme, revealing he knew Russia would invade Ukraine when officials ‘directly lied’ to him in a ‘chilling moment’.
Discussing a trip to Moscow in February, he said he had conversations with Russia’s Minister of Defence Sergei Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov.
‘And I remember saying to Minister Shoigu “they will fight” and he said, “my mother is Ukrainian, they won’t!”. He also said he had no intention of invading’, Mr Wallace said.
‘That would be ‘Vran’e’ in the Russian language. “Vran’e” I think is sort of a demonstration of bullying or strength: I’m going to lie to you. You know I’m lying. I know you know I’m lying and I’m still going to lie to you.
‘He knew I knew and I knew he knew. But I think it was about saying: I’m powerful.
‘It was the fairly chilling but direct lie of what they were not going to do that I think to me confirmed they were going to do it.
‘I remember as we were walking out General Gerasimov said, “Never again will we be humiliated. We used to be the fourth army in the world, we’re now number two. It’s now America and us”.
‘And there in that minute was that sense of potentially why [they were doing this].’
The programme also hears from Mr Zelensky about his efforts to join NATO so the alliance would help defend Ukraine against Russia and other adversaries.
He repeatedly tried to win over Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, but the move would risk a wider war and Ukraine is far away from fulfilling the membership criteria.
Mr Zelensky says: ’I told him: “Jens, I want to join Nato, do you see us in Nato?” Because nothing would defend our country except for actual membership.
‘I said: “It’s just unfair and not nice. You don’t see us as equals”.’
Putin vs The West is set to air on BBC Two on Monday evening.
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